Post Bronc and Heart Cath – Full Update – Next Surgery Planned

Hi All,

As I said earlier today, everything went really well. Judah has been recovering all day and we’re beginning to see him be more of himself. He is still pretty crabby but that’s normal with coming out of anesthesia. The doctors fully expect us to be home with Judah tomorrow.

Bronchoscopy
They were very happy with what they saw in his lungs. They said it look 100% better! This is is an answer to prayer! Right now, we have no plans to change anything in terms of treatment. More details on the next step with the trach and vent later in this post.

Heart Catheterization
Everything went really well with the heart cath. As I said, they had really easy access getting from his upper leg, through his abdomen and chest and into his heart. Because he’s had so much done in that area, they expected some trouble getting to the heart. As far as his heart looks, it’s as good as it can be, given his condition (HLHS). The blood moves well, the pumping action is strong, there isn’t any narrowing of any veins, and all the valves look good.

If some of you sensed a “but” coming, here it is: they noticed that his left lung is a bit abnormal. It’s actually fairly difficult to explain and there isn’t a name for it that we’re aware of. Basically, his left lung isn’t functioning properly. That could be because he was born that way or because of trauma that the lung has experienced so far. (Surgeries, diaphragm plication, drainage tubes, etc.) The main problem is that the blood going into his left lung is “back washing,” and so the lung isn’t being adequately oxygenated. In most people’s lungs, the blood volume in your lungs is about 55% to the right lung, and 45% to the left. With Judah, it could be as high as 85% to the right, and only 15% to the left. They believe that this will correct itself after his next surgery, the “Glenn”. We aren’t too worried about explaining all the details of this issue just yet, as we will probably revisit and learn more as we approach Judah’s next surgery. Speaking of which, let’s move on to that.

Judah will have his next heart surgery sometime in October. We don’t know exactly when yet. Our cardiologist will take the results from today’s tests to a weekly phone conference with other heart experts from Buffalo and Syracuse on Thursday. After that, they will call us with possible dates. Even though his heart looks good, it really only means that it looks good for his condition, he still needs the next surgery. Because there is a high risk of the flu in the winter months, they want to do it before it gets too cold outside. Even though his lungs look good, they want to wait until after he fully recovers from the surgery to discuss taking the trach out. However, that will be in the winter months and the middle of flu season, so we’ll most likely have to wait until the spring.

Thank you all for praying for us and Judah. Please continue to pray that Judah has a good night’s sleep and is ready for discharge tomorrow.